Friday, 20 April 2018

033. Another Grandmaster to the Rescue

White: AndyAndyO - thematic tournament, ChessWorld.net, 2017

From the Black side of the Vienna I have for a long time preferred 2...Nc6 to the standard 2...Nf6. Yes, the Frankenstein-Dracula variation 2...Nf6 3 Bc4 Nxe4 4 Qh5 Nd6 5 Bb3 Nc6 6 Nb5 etc can be fun, but I've never had that over the board. What you mostly get is boring equality after 3 f4 d5 or 3 g3 d5.

So I switched to 2...Nc6. Then if 3 Bc4 or 3 g3, Black still has options of a counter-attacking ...f7-f5, while 3 f4 is now far more risky for White due to 3...exf4!. On the other hand, it's very sharp, so you need to be prepared as Black. Eighteen months ago in the Notts League, I faced an unexpected Hamppe-Allgaier Gambit: 4 Nf3 g5 5 h4 g4 6 Ng5 h6 7 Nxf7 Kxf7, and I hadn't studied this in years. Fortunately, nor it seems had my opponent and we played a wholly incorrect game, ending in a draw.

Since then I've looked at the theory again. 8 d4 is considered the main move nowadays and 8...f3! the best response. In Black Weapons in the Open Games (New in Chess 2014), GM Victor Bologan gives 9 Bc4+ d5!? (“In such positions time is an extremely important factor”) 10 Bxd5+ Kg7 11 gxf3 Nf6! 12 Be3 Bb4 13 Bc4 Qe7 14 Qe2 (as arose in J.Gallager-V.Hrsec, Geneva 1991) and now the major improvement 14...Rd8!, intending 15 0-0-0 Bxc3 16 bxc3 Qa3+ 17 Kb1 Qxc3 18 Bb3 Rxd4! (“which is even better than capturing with the knight”).

All good – but there's also 9 gxf3, which I noticed scores over 85% for White in the databases. What does Black do against that? Grandmaster Bologan rides to the rescue! In the database games (dating back to I.Gunsberg-G.Mackenzie, London 1886) Black always played 9...Be7, whereas Bologan follows his theme:

“In the sub-variation 9 gxf3, no one has tried 9...d5!?, although I think this is the only way to exploit Black's material advantage. Now, if we exclude 10 exd5 because of 10...Nb4 (or even 10...Bd6!?, with the idea 11 dxc6 Bg3+ 11 Ke2 Nf6 and ...Re8), the critical line is 10 Nxd5, against which I like the active 10...Nf6 11 Bc4 Kg7, with the idea 12 Nxf6 Qxf6 13 e5 Bb4+ 14 c3 Nxe5!?, when Black has a strong initiative. I saw this theme frequently while analyzing this position. Black returns the piece to destroy White's steamroller.”

Here it seems logical to target the white king on the open lines after 19...Bd6, but I couldn't see any conclusive way forward. So I decided to close the position instead with 19...Bc5+! 20 Kg3 Bd6+! 21 f4 h5, relying on the protected passed g-pawn as a long-term asset, and aiming eventually to get in behind and cause damage with a rook. Although White is only a couple of moves from bringing his own rooks out and challenging for the open files, it's surprisingly difficult for him to consolidate a defence.

In the end I managed to infiltrate via the pleasing manoeuvre ...Re5-c5-a5-a6-b6-b3, after which the game didn't last much longer.